Steve Bannon expressed “regret” for his comments to journalist Michael Wolff, whose explosive new book sparked a backlash against the former top Donald Trump aide over his comments about a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016.

The wife of a disgraced Pennsylvania police chief has broken her silence after her husband was arrested on Friday for trying to solicit sex from an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, KDKA reports.

BEIJING (AP) — An Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China's east coast, leaving the tanker's entire crew of 32 missing and causing it to spill oil into the sea, authorities said Sunday.

Sports stadiums in Saudi Arabia will open their doors to women to attend football matches for the first time ever on Friday, the government has announced. "The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al-Ahli versus Al-Batin on Friday January 12," the ministry of information said in a statement on Monday. It said women would also be able to attend a second match on the following day and a third one on January 18.

By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran has foiled attempts by its foreign enemies to turn legitimate protests into an insurgency to overthrow the Islamic Republic, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. "Once again, the nation tells the US, Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that 'you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too.'" Khamenei tweeted. The Revolutionary Guards, the military force loyal to Khamenei, said on Sunday security forces had put an end to the unrest that it too said had been whipped up by foreign enemies.

WASHINGTON – Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday sought to discredit a new report that President Donald Trump likely met with Russians at his Trump Tower headquarters, but then admitted he did not know.

Fisker Inc. might sound like a familiar name, but it's actually a very new company that's just released a few details of its first new vehicle, the EMotion electric sedan. Although the official image doesn't give away much about some of the really revolutionary engineering behind the EMotion, it does show in some style the feature most people will inevitably talk about with this car: its pretty crazy butterfly doors. The company is run by Henrik Fisker, who was also the man behind Fisker Automotive, which produced the Karma electric sedan before the company withered and car went to China, resurrected by a company called Karma as the Revero.

A Texas couple who pleaded guilty to charges related to forcing a Nigerian woman to work as their nanny for two years without pay has been ordered to pay her more than $121,000 in restitution, a judge ruled Friday.

Last year, the Guardian reported on an event staged by the Kushner family in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments. Jared Kushner’s business dealings are under renewed scrutiny amid reports that the US’s top financial watchdog is looking into an investment-for-visa program run by the Kushner family’s real estate company and questions have been raised about his business dealings in Israel.

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday ordered a re-examination of the case of a black death row inmate after one of the jurors at his trial questioned whether black people have souls. The high court in September halted the execution of Keith Tharpe, who was hours away from receiving a lethal injection, after his lawyers argued that racism had played a "pivotal role" in his death sentence. Tharpe was found guilty of the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman, which took place as she drove to work with his estranged wife in the southern US state of Georgia.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce said on Monday he will not run for a 14th term representing his southern California district, a seat that could be a key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives. Royce is the latest in a wave of some 30 House Republicans who have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning. Democrats need to win 24 seats in the November mid-term elections to retake the majority in the House, which Republicans have controlled since 2011.

ATLANTA (AP) — A few dozen protesters took a knee in cold, light rain on a sidewalk near the venue of the College Football Playoff title game Monday evening, shouting slogans against President Donald Trump.

Hundreds of flying foxes have perished during Australia's searingly hot summer, according to environmentalists. Shocked campaigners were confronted by the sight of scores of dead animals, and claimed the creatures were "boiled alive" in the heat. Some flying foxes were still hanging from trees as they died, in a shock mass death which campaigners called "dreadful and heartbreaking". The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign wrote on Facebook that temperatures hit over 44C in the Campbelltown district of Sydney, and that over 400 of the animals died. Sydney reached a nearly 80-year temperature high of 47.3C on Sunday. The campaign wrote: "So many little lives lost due to the extreme heat and not enough canopy cover to shade them or keep them cool. "Adults sought out shade and more shelter further up the creek resulting in many babies being left behind to deal with the heat." Campaigners attempted to nurse the animals back to health Credit: Facebook People who live in the area are being urged to watch out for flying foxes which may be suffering heat stress, as those which are often move further to the ground, and to call local wildlife rescue services. Volunteer Cate Ryan told local media: "It was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before." A local wildlife rescue group advised: "If the flying-fox is on the ground and it’s a hot day, you can place a cool towel or umbrella above it until the rescuer arrives to protect it from the the worst of the heat. Spraying the animal intermittently with a very light mist or setting up a sprinkler to gently wet the animal can also help." A pile of dead flying foxes Flying foxes are big bats and eat nectar, pollen and fruit. Unlike smaller bats, they do not use sonar and instead, like humans, use their eyes and ears. The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign said "Flying foxes are intelligent and remarkable. These unique animals help regenerate our forests and keep ecosystems healthy through pollination and seed dispersal. They are a migratory and nomadic 'keystone' species; meaning a species that many other species of plants and animals rely upon for their survival and wellbeing. Flying foxes, like bees, help drive biodiversity, and faced with the threat of climate change, land clearing, and other human-caused ecological pressures, we need them more than ever." The Australian heatwave featured temperatures which melted the bitumen on the highway, as well as sparking bushfires which politicians warned were a danger to life.

Police officers shot and killed nearly 1,000 people in the United States in 2017, slightly more than the previous year, according to a tally published on Monday by The Washington Post. The newspaper has been logging details of shootings by police in the United States since 2015, tracking local news reports, public records and social media. Black men, both armed and unarmed, accounted for 22 percent of all people shot and killed by US police last year but make up just six percent of the total US population.

Israeli jets and ground-to-ground missiles struck Syria early on Tuesday, Syria's army said, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated he would do what was needed to stop Hezbollah gaining "game-changing" Iranian weapons. The Syrian army said in a statement carried by state television that Israeli jets fired missiles at the al-Qutaifa area near Damascus from inside Lebanese airspace at 2:40 a.m. (0040 GMT) and Syrian air defenses hit one of the planes. Israel then fired rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but the Syrian defenses brought them down, the army said, adding that Israeli jets fired a final barrage of four rockets from inside Israel, one of which was intercepted by Syrian air defenses while the others caused material damage.

An oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a freighter off China’s east coast is at risk of exploding and sinking, Chinese state media reported Monday, as authorities from three countries struggled to find its 32 missing crew members.

India's Supreme Court on Monday announced a review of a hugely controversial ban on gay sex, saying no one should have to live in fear because of their sexuality. The court said it would take up a legal challenge by five high-profile Indians who said the colonial-era law created an atmosphere of intimidation. The announcement is the latest chapter in a long-running legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by the British in the 1860s.

The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A mother, father and their two young sons were shot to death early Monday at a Southeast Texas beachfront hotel in what police are investigating as a possible triple killing followed by a suicide in which the woman was the shooter.

It might have been only 18 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City on Sunday afternoon, but the annual tradition of riding the subway without pants went on despite some frozen buns. SEE ALSO: Eastern U.S. shivers through 'stupid cold' temperatures after the 'bomb cyclone' The light-hearted event brought out many riders donning winter clothing, but no pants. Once on board, participants are supposed to play it straight and act like nothing's out of the ordinary. No pants subway ride in New york January 7th 2018 #Nopantssuwayride2018 more information #improveverywhere https://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ #nopantssubwayride #nopants #nopantssubway #Newyorkhttps://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ A post shared by 2018awesome (@nopantssubway2018) on Jan 6, 2018 at 9:58am PST Even "Hot" Mike Pence was spotted wearing just a suit and underwear. Just met “Hot Mike Pence” doing the no pants subway ride today... he goes around prodding fun at the Trump administration, specifically the VP, collecting for causes opposed to the administration’s view pic.twitter.com/nkwkhp3NY0 — Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) January 7, 2018 Elsewhere riders were pant-less despite brisk temperatures in Chicago, Washington, D.C, Berlin, and London — where the ride is known as the "No Trousers Tube Ride." Just got home. Thank you to everyone who took part in the #NoTrousersTubeRide today in the UK or elsewhere in the world. The world can be a depressing place, but just silly things like this can make it so much easier to deal with. A genuinely hilarious day. pic.twitter.com/DO8Y29V6KX — Tom [PositiveLad] (@PositiveLad) January 7, 2018 Baby, it’s cold outside but it’s electric down in Metro. Go DC! Go DC, go! #nopantsdc #NoPantsSubwayRide @WTOP pic.twitter.com/qE1jV0s9T2 — Liz Anderson (@PlanetNoun) January 7, 2018 On the West Coast and in other more forgiving climates, it wasn't that cold, but riders still made an impressive showing in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. No pants? No problem riding the L.A. Metro.The 10th annual No Pants Metro Ride surprised passengers at Union Station this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/LY69aimwB0 — Hub-LA (@TheHub_LA) January 7, 2018 No pants, no problem! WATCH: Subway rat seizes free avocado, because who wouldn't

A former chief of staff of China's military is under investigation on "suspicion of bribery", state media said Tuesday, as Xi Jinping's sweeping anti-graft crackdown claimed another top general. Fang Fenghui was appointed to the PLA's top post in 2012. The general has been "transferred to the military prosecution authority on suspicion of bribery" said Xinhua news agency without providing further details.

Celgene Corp , which has announced a deal to buy Impact Biomedicines, on Monday forecast 2018 total revenue that fell short of analysts' estimates, sending the U.S. biotech company's shares down 2 percent. Celgene, which left its long-range 2020 forecast unchanged, said it expects 2018 full-year revenue of $14.4 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts' on average were estimating revenue of $14.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. While headlines suggested the Impact deal announced on Sunday could cost up to $7 billion, Celgene said the only certain cost was the upfront payment of $1.1 billion, with all other payments contingent on approval and major sales milestones for fedratinib, a late stage drug for myelofibrosis.

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who are among President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, deserve to be spared from criticism while they’re “sacrificing in their service” working for Americans, according to the deputy White House press secretary.

The Government Accountability Office is raising concerns about the technological maturity of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. The new boomer, which must become operational by 2031, will feature a host of new technologies that are supposed to increase the vessels’ survivability into the foreseeable future. “Additional development and testing are required to demonstrate the maturity of several Columbia class submarine technologies that are critical to performance, including the Integrated Power System, nuclear reactor, common missile compartment, and propulsor and related coordinated stern technologies,” the GAO report reads.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) — A transgender rights advocate who started a pageant for transgender women in New England was found stabbed and beaten to death in her home, and her husband was charged with her slaying.

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Pro-independence parties may keep their absolute majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament, an exit poll suggested after elections on Thursday, potentially prolonging Spain’s worst political crisis in decades. No official results have yet been published and it was unclear if final results would match the poll, published by La Vanguardia newspaper as voting stations closed. If confirmed, the projection would open a new, uncertain chapter and cast doubts over Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s ability to draw a line under a crisis that has damaged Spain’s economy and prompted a business exodus away from Catalonia.

The nation’s divisions are growing dangerously deep and wide. Yet, “When you turn from symbols to policy, there’s less polarization,” says Robert Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducts the American Values Survey.

On October 3, the second day of the new term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that likely poses the most momentous question on its docket: Should it, for the first time in history, strike down a state’s electoral map on the grounds of partisan gerrymandering?

Anti-Trump protests continued for a seventh straight day in large cities throughout the country.
In Washington, D.C., more than 1,000 students staged a walkout and protested outside of Trump International Hotel, holding signs that read "Boycott Bigotry" and "Stronger Together."

Donald Trump was elected America’s 45th president Tuesday, an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters’ economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House. His triumph over Hillary Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama.

We’ve finally arrived at sweeps week in the televised event posing as our presidential election. And if American viewers can’t quite bring themselves to click away from Donald Trump’s vulgar and monotonous reality show, it’s probably because they’ve had all they can take of the cloying, predictable soap opera that keeps rerunning on the other channel.

By Nov. 9, the votes will have been cast and counted, there will be a winner and a loser, and the country will begin a slow return to normal. Historians will have their say on the outcome, but all of us who have lived through this election will carry away indelible memories of a shocking year in American history: of a handful of ordinary people, swept up in the rush of history; of a series of moments on which the fate of the nation seemed, at least briefly, to turn; and of places on the map that became symbols of a divided nation. ...

Down Ticket is Yahoo News’ complete guide to the most fascinating House, Senate and governors’ races of 2016. PHILADELPHIA — With control of the Senate at stake in this year’s election, it’s not surprising to see Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic star, stumping for Katie McGinty, the challenger to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, a tea party favorite for most of his career. It is noteworthy, however, that some gun control groups are backing Toomey.

The Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin: Did the Russians hack U.S. election databases? A top cybersecurity firm said Friday it has found “significant” links between the hacks of two U.S. state election databases this summer and suspected Russian state-sponsored attacks against the ruling political party in Turkey and members of the Ukrainian Parliament. ThreatConnect, a firm founded by former U.S. military intelligence analysts, said it discovered the connection this week by researching a Web address linked to one of the election hacks and cited in an Aug. 18 confidential “flash” alert to state election officials. The alert was first reported Monday by Yahoo News.

The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials. The FBI warning, contained in a “flash” alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections. Johnson emphasized in the call that Homeland Security was not aware of “specific or credible cybersecurity threats” to the election, officials said.

One Chinese factory is expecting Donald Trump to beat his likely U.S. presidential rival Hilary Clinton in the popularity stakes. At the Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory, a Halloween and party supply business that produces thousands of rubber and plastic masks of everyone from Osama Bin Laden to Spiderman, masks of Donald Trump and Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton faces are being churned out. Sales of the two expected presidential candidates are at about half a million each but the factory management believes Trump will eventually run out the winner.

Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Monday at stone-throwing crowds protesting in central Nairobi against an election oversight body they say is biased and should be scrapped, Reuters witnesses reported. Officers armed with batons confronted hundreds of protesters outside the offices of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the third clash over the issue in less than a month. The opposition CORD coalition, led by Raila Odinga who lost the 2013 vote and unsuccessfully challenged the result in court, has accused the IEBC of bias and said its members should quit.

Hours after stepping off the stage at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, several of the lower-polling Republican presidential candidates hit the morning talk shows to explain how they won the last GOP debate of 2015.

Meanwhile, the federal government could offer catastrophic care coverage akin to the National Flood Insurance Program, paid for with taxes on insurers’ profits. He has called for government regulators to determine — “with the help of medical professionals” — what providers can charge for care, ensuring “fair and consistent” payments “throughout the country.” Once he declared his candidacy, Carson said he’d scrap Medicare and Medicaid — two longtime targets of conservatives — and spend the money instead on giving every American $2,000 a year for a health savings account. Now, three months from when Iowa and New Hampshire voters cast ballots, Carson’s campaign is promising a policy announcement that will clarify just where the candidate stands on health care.

“I’ll put it in your personality file,” Nix joked. “We’ve modeled every personality of every voter in the United States.” If one were to try to imagine the person who claims to know every single American personality, one would probably not think of Nix, an Eton-educated Englishman in a tweed coat who speaks in fluid, grammatically correct paragraphs of his company’s microtargeting strategy. Whether we like it or not, political campaigns know more and more about each and every one of us, and they’re using that data to craft increasingly specific advertising tailored to our lifestyles. Republicans, led by Karl Rove, pioneered the technique of political microtargeting in a presidential election in 2004, to get out the vote for George W. Bush.

By Katie Brinn The scene in Hong Kong over the past week has gone from chaos to calm and back again, as tensions grow and pro-democracy throngs clash with pro-China demonstrators. It all started on Sept. 26, when hundreds of students gathered in a courtyard in Central Hong Kong, demanding an end to Chinese oppression and control. China’s modern history with Hong Kong has been complicated, to say the least. For more than 150 years, Hong Kong belonged to Britain. Then in 1997 Britain handed the thriving metropolis back to China in a political deal called “One Country, Two Systems,” which allowed Hong Kong to maintain some of the freedoms and independence mainland Chinese people do not have, such as freedom of the press and the right to assemble. The people of Hong Kong would even be allowed to elect their own leader in 2017.

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday was set to sign an executive order that will direct government departments to try to prevent suicide among military veterans by treating mental health problems before they become more serious. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin told reporters on a conference call that Trump wants to address an alarming trend, that of 20 veterans a day taking their own life. "That is just an unacceptable number and we are focused on doing everything we can to try to prevent these veteran suicides," Shulkin said.

Heavy downpours that could produce more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) of rain per hour were expected through Tuesday evening, forcing officials to order or advise Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles county residents who live near where wildfires burned to evacuated their homes. "Recent burn areas will be especially vulnerable where dangerous mud and debris flows are possible," the National Weather Service said in a statement. Several December wildfires, included a blaze known as the Thomas Fire which was the largest in the state's history, burned away vegetation that holds the soil in place and baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

A U.S. spy satellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX rocket on Sunday failed to reach orbit and is assumed to be a total loss, two U.S. officials briefed on the mission said on Monday. The classified intelligence satellite, built by Northrop Grumman Corp, failed to separate from the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket and is assumed to have broken up or plunged into the sea, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The satellite is assumed to be "a write-off," one of the officials said.

By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants allowed to live and work in the United States since 2001 will lose their right to remain in the country in 2019, officials said on Monday, marking the Trump administration's latest move to tighten immigration enforcement. The United States will end the Salvadorans' temporary protected status (TPS) on Sept. 9, 2019, giving them 18 months to leave or seek lawful residency, and for El Salvador to prepare for their return, administration officials said. The status was granted in the wake of two devastating 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador that left hundreds of thousands in the country homeless.

A Pennsylvania court on Monday sentenced four members of a national college fraternity to a maximum of two years in prison and banned the group from operating in the state for 10 years because of the 2013 death of a student during hazing incident. The court also fined Pi Delta Psi $112,500 for the death of Chun "Michael" Deng, a 19-year-old freshman from New York's Baruch College, who was knocked unconscious by fraternity members who waited an hour before taking him to a hospital. A jury in November found Pi Delta Psi, an Asian-American cultural fraternity, guilty of aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter, marking what prosecutors and defense lawyers called the first time a U.S. fraternity was criminally convicted in a pledge hazing death.

Led by a sharp drop in pedestrian deaths, overall traffic fatalities in New York City fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2017 to their lowest on record, thanks at least in part to an ongoing safety improvement program, city officials said on Monday. The number of pedestrians, motorists and cyclists killed in accidents on New York City streets last year fell by 7 percent to 214 and by 28 percent from 2013 when officials began implementing a safety program known as Vision Zero.

By John L. Smith LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday threw out a criminal case against a Nevada rancher and three other men over a 2014 militia standoff with federal agents, saying prosecutors had repeatedly withheld evidence from the defense. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed the case "with prejudice," meaning that rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and a militia member will not face another trial. Navarro had declared a mistrial last month.

Massachusetts' top federal prosecutor will not rule out prosecuting businesses dealing in marijuana, he said on Monday, less than a week after the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy easing enforcement in states that legalized the drug. Massachusetts is one of eight states whose voters have legalized use of recreational marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. Legal retail sales of the drug were to begin in Massachusetts this year under the terms of a voter initiative passed in 2016.

Republican Mitt Romney, strongly considering a run for a U.S. Senate seat from Utah, underwent successful treatment for prostate cancer last year, a source close to Romney said on Monday. Romney, who lost the 2012 U.S. presidential race to Barack Obama, was treated surgically by Dr. Thomas Ahlering at UC Irvine Hospital in California and his prognosis is good, the source said. Romney advisers say the 70-year-old former governor of Massachusetts is weighing a run in the November congressional election for a Senate seat from Utah, a Republican-dominated state where Romney has a home.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a black Georgia inmate to challenge his 1991 death sentence for killing his sister-in-law after he argued the case was tainted by a racist white juror who questioned whether black people have souls. The justices, in a 6-3 unsigned decision, threw out a lower court's decision that had rejected his biased jury assertion. Keith Tharpe was found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of 10 white people and two black people in Georgia's Jones County.

The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.

Weather and climate-related disasters cost the United States a record $306 billion in 2017, the third-warmest year on record, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Monday. The report from the federal agency underscores the economic risks of climate change, even as President Donald Trump's administration casts doubts on the causes of it and has started withdrawing the U.S. from a global pact to combat it. NOAA said western wildfires and hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma contributed to making 2017 the costliest year on record.

Three people were injured in an early-morning fire at the top of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, the New York Fire Department said on Monday, as the city's workday rush began. U.S. President Donald Trump was in Washington at the time. Trump's primary residence was in the building before his election victory and inauguration nearly a year ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended the first legal challenge to a Republican-backed Mississippi law that permits businesses and government employees to refuse to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people because of their religious beliefs. The justices left in place a June ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the plaintiffs - same-sex couples, civil rights advocates including the head of the state NAACP chapter, a church and others - did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit. The law, passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by Republican Governor Phillip Bryant with the backing of conservative Christian activists, has not yet been implemented and more legal challenges are expected, according to gay rights lawyers.

(Reuters) - U.S. specialty metals makers Arconic Inc said on Monday it would freeze defined benefit pension plans for all 7,900 of its U.S.-based salaried and non-bargained hourly employees, effective April 1.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter that the officer, who has not been identified, was dispatched along with other deputies to a house in Frederickson, about 18 miles south of Tacoma, shortly before midnight. Deputies were chasing them when the shooting erupted and one officer was struck by gunfire, the Tacoma News Tribune newspaper reported. "White male suspect found deceased at the scene, black male suspect remains unidentified and on the loose," the sheriff's office said.

Flooding from a water main break forced the temporary suspension of some flights at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, adding to the misery of travelers after a winter storm canceled or delayed hundreds of flights in recent days. Water poured from the ceiling onto a check-in counter and covered large areas of the floor of Terminal 4, video on CNN showed. The disruption occurred while the U.S. Northeast continued to endure bone-chilling weather with the New York temperature at 17 degrees Fahrenheit (-8 Celsius).

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Friday found a lack of evidence that Starbucks cheats customers by making its cups too small, using "fill-to" lines on baristas' pitchers that are too low, and instructing baristas to skimp on ingredients, such as by leaving a quarter-inch of space atop drinks. The Oakland, California-based judge also rejected a claim that milk foam added to lattes and mochas should not count toward advertised volumes. "Accordingly, plaintiffs fail to show that lattes contain less than the promised beverage volume represented on Starbucks' menu boards," Rogers wrote.

Six people were killed on Sunday when a vehicle going the wrong direction on a northern California highway collided with another vehicle, causing a fire that engulfed both cars, police said. The female driver of the 2013 Chevrolet going the wrong way on Interstate 5 as well as the five people in the other vehicle, a 2013 Dodge, were all pronounced dead at the scene, the California Highway Patrol said.

The head of the Central Intelligence Agency said on Sunday that Russia and others are trying to undermine elections in the United States, the next major one being in November when Republicans will try to keep control of Congress. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to try to help President Donald Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing emails embarrassing to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and spreading social media propaganda. CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS that the Russian interference is longstanding, and continues.

(Reuters) - One Powerball ticket purchased in New Hampshire matched all six numbers for Saturday's estimated $570 million jackpot drawing, the fifth largest grand prize in the game's 15-year history, lottery officials said. The winning numbers drawn were 12, 29, 30, 33, 61 and Powerball 26. The odds of a single ticket hitting all six numbers in the Powerball are 292 million to 1, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.

Government officials across the United States try to maintain accurate voter rolls by removing people who have died or moved away. The justices will hear arguments in Republican-governed Ohio's appeal of a lower court ruling that blocked its policy of erasing from voter registration lists people who do not regularly cast a ballot. Under the policy, such registration is deleted if the person goes six years without either voting or contacting state voting officials.

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected an author's accusations that he is mentally unfit for office and said his business career and election victory showed he is "a very stable genius." Michael Wolff, who was granted unusually wide access to the White House during much of Trump's first year, has said in promoting his book that Trump is unfit for the presidency. Trump said Democratic critics and the U.S. news media were bringing up the "old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence" since they have not been able to bring him down in other ways. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," said Trump, a former reality TV star and developer.

By Scott Malone and Gina Cherelus BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A shroud of bone-chilling arctic air covered the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Saturday, creating dangerous conditions as tens of millions of people struggled to clean up from a blizzard that dumped deep, drifting snow in many areas earlier this week. Wind chill and freeze warnings stretched from New England to Ohio and Pennsylvania, while the National Weather Service warned of freezing rain in Missouri and areas to the northeast. In some of those places, exposed skin could freeze within 30 minutes, said meteorologist Dan Petersen of the National Weather Service's Maryland-based Weather Prediction Center.

Gun violence in major U.S. cities fell in 2017 as police used the latest crime-fighting software combined with a revival of old-fashioned community policing to build trust with a skeptical public. Law enforcement officials and criminologists credit that dual approach with helping extend the decades-long reduction in crime in New York City and reducing gun violence in Chicago by 20 percent in 2017. Chicago became a symbol of U.S. gun violence after homicides soared nearly 60 percent in 2016, drawing frequent criticism from Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency and after he was elected.

U.S. astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon in 1972 and even smuggled a corned beef sandwich into orbit during a career that made him the only person to fly with three NASA space programs, has died at age 87, officials said on Saturday. Young, who went to space six times, died on Friday night at his home in Houston following complications from pneumonia, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Allard Beutel said in an email. The former U.S. Navy test pilot was the ninth person to set foot on the moon, an experience shared by three others after Young.

The author of a book that is highly critical of Donald Trump's first year as U.S. president said his revelations were likely to bring an end to Trump's time in the White House. Michael Wolff told BBC radio that his conclusion in "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House"-- that Trump is not fit to do the job -- was becoming a widespread view. Trump has dismissed the book as full of lies.

One ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Florida in the Mega Millions lottery jackpot of an estimated $450 million, the fourth largest in the game's history, the lottery said after Friday's drawing. The identity of the ticket holder or holders was not announced by lottery officials. The Mega Millions drawing has a $281-million payout if the winner selects a lump-sum payment.

By Lesley Wroughton and Hyunjoo Jin WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea on Friday completed the first round of review talks on a bilateral trade deal with Washington saying there was "much work to do" to reach a new pact. Since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of talks on a 14-nation Asia-Pacific trade pact, started negotiations on a new deal for the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada and initiated a review of the 2012 Korea deal. Washington has taken a hard line in the NAFTA talks, which appear stalled with just two rounds of negotiations left, saying that concessions are the only way for Canada and Mexico to keep the deal.

By Scott Malone and Gina Cherelus BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, as temperatures plunged during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people. Extreme cold will reach from New England to the Midwest and down to the Carolinas, forecasters warned. Temperatures were expected to be 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average across the northeastern United States for the next several days.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said after talks with South Korean trade officials in Washington on Friday that there is "much work to do" to reach agreement on a revamped trade deal. "We have much work to do to reach an agreement that serves the economic interests of the American people," Lighthizer said in a statement. "Our goals are clear: we must achieve fair and reciprocal trade between our two nations.

The 45-year-old Mexican national, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, has been held behind bars since his arrest in the July 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle, and was fully credited for the three-year sentence, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney's office said. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department handed Garcia Zarate over to U.S. Marshals on Friday on warrants stemming from federal gun charged related to the Steinle incident, sheriff's department spokeswoman Nancy Crowley said.

By Scott DiSavino and Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - A severe winter storm in the U.S. Northeast brought plunging temperatures on Friday, driving regional natural gas prices to all-time highs, disrupting refinery operations and causing electrical outages. Power outages fell to 123,000 from the 235,000 knocked out by the storm over the past couple of days and were largely concentrated in Canada, with 85,100 in Nova Scotia, 16,600 in New Brunswick and 5,100 in Quebec. Refiners in the Philadelphia region were battling severe cold that has slowed crude deliveries and forced the largest plant on the U.S. Coast to significantly cut production.

"The ongoing investigation does not lead us to believe that the fire is in any way related to Roy Moore or allegations made against him," the Etowah County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The home in Gadsden belonged to Tina Johnson, who told AL.com, an Alabama news site, that Moore had groped her while she was in his Alabama law office on legal business in 1991. Johnson, who was 28 at the time, said she visited Moore's office with her mother, who had hired Moore in a custody case involving Johnson's 12-year-old son.

Jurors found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. A San Francisco judge on Friday sentenced Garcia Zarate to three years in prison on the firearms charge, said San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesman Alex Bastian.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers has announced plans to retire this spring and has said he expected a successor to be nominated and approved by the U.S. Senate this month, according to a report on Friday. Rogers, who heads the U.S. Cyber Command, made the announcement to agency staff, a Washington Post reporter said in a post on Twitter. NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey)

A Kansas businessman and race car driver was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison on Friday for crimes related to his online payday lending business, which prosecutors said made more than $3.5 billion as it exploited millions of cash-strapped consumers. Scott Tucker, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan. Tucker did not make a statement at his sentencing, referring instead to a letter he submitted to the court in December.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the law violated the First Amendment free speech rights of the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a Christian nonprofit that provides prenatal services and counsels women on abortion alternatives. Friday's decision in the nearly eight-year-old case followed dozens of court submissions from abortion rights, anti-abortion and religious freedom advocates, and came as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider a similar case from California.

Democratic U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings was treated on Friday for a bacterial infection in his knee at a Maryland hospital, his office said in a statement. Cummings, 66, has represented Maryland's 7th Congressional District since 1996 and is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Last spring, Cummings was absent from Congress for several months after undergoing heart surgery.

Massachusetts on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman who claimed the state is violating her rights by housing her in a men's prison while she serves a three- to four-year sentence for a drug charge. The woman sued the state Department of Corrections in federal court in Boston in November, claiming that it was violating her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing to house her with women and subjecting her to strip searches by male guards. It also said she did not show that the state denied her any services because of her gender dysphoria, noting that she is receiving treatment including counseling sessions, hormone therapy and facial hair removal.

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - In the common room of Boston's Pine Street Inn homeless shelter, dozens of blue vinyl pads and folded-up cots stood ready on Friday for another night's rush of people fleeing the deadly cold that has gripped the region for almost two weeks. The four-story building, whose 160-foot (49-meter) Tuscan-style tower is an icon of the Boston skyline, is filled with enough beds to sleep close to 500 people. The cold snap has been blamed for the death of at least three homeless men, in Texas and North Carolina, according to officials and local news media.

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, with temperatures set to plunge further during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people. From Baltimore to Caribou, Maine, workers battled to clear snow and ice as wind chills were forecast to fall as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in some areas after sundown, according to the National Weather Service. In the latest fatality blamed on the harsh conditions, a driver slid off an icy road, killing a pedestrian, early on Friday in North Charleston, South Carolina, city officials said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's election security unit has no immediate plans to probe allegations of electoral fraud, despite President Donald Trump's announcement this week he was giving the issue to the agency, according to administration officials. Trump said on Wednesday that he had asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review voter fraud and determine appropriate courses of action, as he announced he was disbanding a presidential commission dedicated to the matter.

U.S. lottery players on Friday and Saturday night will get two shots at record Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots that together topped $1 billion after going months without a winner. At stake in Friday's 11 p.m. EST (0400 GMT Saturday) Mega Millions drawing is a $450 million prize, the fourth-largest in its history with a $281 million payout if the winner selects a lump-sum payment. Long odds have not stopped "lottery fever" from spreading, with people lining up at retailers to buy the $2 tickets, said Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, whose members sell about 60 percent of the nation's lottery tickets.

By Steve Friess and John Shiffman DETROIT (Reuters) - The warehouse of a Michigan man who sold donated body parts to researchers was littered with dead flies, dog bowls and human remains “frozen together in flesh-on-flesh chunks,” a federal agent testified Friday. The grisly description came during the opening day in the federal trial of businessman Arthur Rathburn, who sold or leased donated body parts, including human heads, to medical researchers for two decades. Rathburn, however, is charged with defrauding customers by selling them body parts infected with hepatitis and HIV, and with lying to federal agents about shipments.

One of the largest patient assistance charities in the United States said it will not provide financial aid in 2018 after the government revoked its approval to do so because of concerns that drugmakers had improper influence over the charity. Caring Voice Coalition's decision prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General on Friday to announce it would allow drugmakers to provide free drugs in 2018 to patients the charity had helped.

By Scott DiSavino and Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - A severe winter storm in the U.S. Northeast brought plunging temperatures on Friday, driving regional natural gas prices to all-time highs, disrupting refinery operations and causing electrical outages. Power outages fell to 123,000 from the 235,000 knocked out by the storm over the past couple of days and were largely concentrated in Canada, with 85,100 in Nova Scotia, 16,600 in New Brunswick and 5,100 in Quebec. Refiners in the Philadelphia region were battling severe cold that has slowed crude deliveries and forced the largest plant on the U.S. Coast to significantly cut production.

A nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he took part in a scheme to bribe an official at a sovereign wealth fund in order to sell a building complex in Vietnam. Joo Hyun "Dennis" Bahn, 39, pleaded guilty to violating a U.S. foreign corruption law and to conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan. Bahn admitted that in 2014 and 2015, he tried to arrange a bribe to secure the sale of Hanoi's Landmark 72 building complex, owned by Korean construction company Keangnam Enterprises Co Ltd. Bahn's father, Ban Ki-sang, was an executive at the company.

education

Does President Trump see through the fawning of subordinates? To judge from Michael Wolff’s new book, he doesn’t see through it at all. Trump’s susceptibility to flattery is one of the running themes of the book.

The wife of a disgraced Pennsylvania police chief has broken her silence after her husband was arrested on Friday for trying to solicit sex from an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, KDKA reports.

BEIJING (AP) — An Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China's east coast, leaving the tanker's entire crew of 32 missing and causing it to spill oil into the sea, authorities said Sunday.

Sports stadiums in Saudi Arabia will open their doors to women to attend football matches for the first time ever on Friday, the government has announced. "The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al-Ahli versus Al-Batin on Friday January 12," the ministry of information said in a statement on Monday. It said women would also be able to attend a second match on the following day and a third one on January 18.

By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran has foiled attempts by its foreign enemies to turn legitimate protests into an insurgency to overthrow the Islamic Republic, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. "Once again, the nation tells the US, Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that 'you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too.'" Khamenei tweeted. The Revolutionary Guards, the military force loyal to Khamenei, said on Sunday security forces had put an end to the unrest that it too said had been whipped up by foreign enemies.

Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff called President Donald Trump the “biggest leaker” in the White House in an interview Monday, as he defended himself from attacks against his tell-all book on the Trump administration.

Fisker Inc. might sound like a familiar name, but it's actually a very new company that's just released a few details of its first new vehicle, the EMotion electric sedan. Although the official image doesn't give away much about some of the really revolutionary engineering behind the EMotion, it does show in some style the feature most people will inevitably talk about with this car: its pretty crazy butterfly doors. The company is run by Henrik Fisker, who was also the man behind Fisker Automotive, which produced the Karma electric sedan before the company withered and car went to China, resurrected by a company called Karma as the Revero.

A Texas couple who pleaded guilty to charges related to forcing a Nigerian woman to work as their nanny for two years without pay has been ordered to pay her more than $121,000 in restitution, a judge ruled Friday.

Last year, the Guardian reported on an event staged by the Kushner family in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments. Jared Kushner’s business dealings are under renewed scrutiny amid reports that the US’s top financial watchdog is looking into an investment-for-visa program run by the Kushner family’s real estate company and questions have been raised about his business dealings in Israel.

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday ordered a re-examination of the case of a black death row inmate after one of the jurors at his trial questioned whether black people have souls. The high court in September halted the execution of Keith Tharpe, who was hours away from receiving a lethal injection, after his lawyers argued that racism had played a "pivotal role" in his death sentence. Tharpe was found guilty of the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman, which took place as she drove to work with his estranged wife in the southern US state of Georgia.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce said on Monday he will not run for a 14th term representing his southern California district, a seat that could be a key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives. Royce is the latest in a wave of some 30 House Republicans who have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning. Democrats need to win 24 seats in the November mid-term elections to retake the majority in the House, which Republicans have controlled since 2011.

Steve Bannon expressed “regret” for his comments to journalist Michael Wolff, whose explosive new book sparked a backlash against the former top Donald Trump aide over his comments about a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016.

An oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a freighter off China’s east coast is at risk of exploding and sinking, Chinese state media reported Monday, as authorities from three countries struggled to find its 32 missing crew members.

Hundreds of flying foxes have perished during Australia's searingly hot summer, according to environmentalists. Shocked campaigners were confronted by the sight of scores of dead animals, and claimed the creatures were "boiled alive" in the heat. Some flying foxes were still hanging from trees as they died, in a shock mass death which campaigners called "dreadful and heartbreaking". The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign wrote on Facebook that temperatures hit over 44C in the Campbelltown district of Sydney, and that over 400 of the animals died. Sydney reached a nearly 80-year temperature high of 47.3C on Sunday. The campaign wrote: "So many little lives lost due to the extreme heat and not enough canopy cover to shade them or keep them cool. "Adults sought out shade and more shelter further up the creek resulting in many babies being left behind to deal with the heat." Campaigners attempted to nurse the animals back to health Credit: Facebook People who live in the area are being urged to watch out for flying foxes which may be suffering heat stress, as those which are often move further to the ground, and to call local wildlife rescue services. Volunteer Cate Ryan told local media: "It was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before." A local wildlife rescue group advised: "If the flying-fox is on the ground and it’s a hot day, you can place a cool towel or umbrella above it until the rescuer arrives to protect it from the the worst of the heat. Spraying the animal intermittently with a very light mist or setting up a sprinkler to gently wet the animal can also help." A pile of dead flying foxes Flying foxes are big bats and eat nectar, pollen and fruit. Unlike smaller bats, they do not use sonar and instead, like humans, use their eyes and ears. The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign said "Flying foxes are intelligent and remarkable. These unique animals help regenerate our forests and keep ecosystems healthy through pollination and seed dispersal. They are a migratory and nomadic 'keystone' species; meaning a species that many other species of plants and animals rely upon for their survival and wellbeing. Flying foxes, like bees, help drive biodiversity, and faced with the threat of climate change, land clearing, and other human-caused ecological pressures, we need them more than ever." The Australian heatwave featured temperatures which melted the bitumen on the highway, as well as sparking bushfires which politicians warned were a danger to life.

Israeli jets and ground-to-ground missiles struck Syria early on Tuesday, Syria's army said, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated he would do what was needed to stop Hezbollah gaining "game-changing" Iranian weapons. The Syrian army said in a statement carried by state television that Israeli jets fired missiles at the al-Qutaifa area near Damascus from inside Lebanese airspace at 2:40 a.m. (0040 GMT) and Syrian air defenses hit one of the planes. Israel then fired rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but the Syrian defenses brought them down, the army said, adding that Israeli jets fired a final barrage of four rockets from inside Israel, one of which was intercepted by Syrian air defenses while the others caused material damage.

India's Supreme Court on Monday announced a review of a hugely controversial ban on gay sex, saying no one should have to live in fear because of their sexuality. The court said it would take up a legal challenge by five high-profile Indians who said the colonial-era law created an atmosphere of intimidation. The announcement is the latest chapter in a long-running legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by the British in the 1860s.

The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A mother, father and their two young sons were shot to death early Monday at a Southeast Texas beachfront hotel in what police are investigating as a possible triple killing followed by a suicide in which the woman was the shooter.

The Philippines will lodge a diplomatic protest with China after Manila questioned if Beijing had reneged on a pledge not to militarise a disputed South China Sea reef. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains into islands, installing military facilities and equipment on them. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana Tuesday said Manila was investigating reports of recent Chinese activity on Fiery Cross Reef, an outcrop that Beijing turned into an artificial island and which now appears to house a military base.

It might have been only 18 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City on Sunday afternoon, but the annual tradition of riding the subway without pants went on despite some frozen buns. SEE ALSO: Eastern U.S. shivers through 'stupid cold' temperatures after the 'bomb cyclone' The light-hearted event brought out many riders donning winter clothing, but no pants. Once on board, participants are supposed to play it straight and act like nothing's out of the ordinary. No pants subway ride in New york January 7th 2018 #Nopantssuwayride2018 more information #improveverywhere https://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ #nopantssubwayride #nopants #nopantssubway #Newyorkhttps://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ A post shared by 2018awesome (@nopantssubway2018) on Jan 6, 2018 at 9:58am PST Even "Hot" Mike Pence was spotted wearing just a suit and underwear. Just met “Hot Mike Pence” doing the no pants subway ride today... he goes around prodding fun at the Trump administration, specifically the VP, collecting for causes opposed to the administration’s view pic.twitter.com/nkwkhp3NY0 — Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) January 7, 2018 Elsewhere riders were pant-less despite brisk temperatures in Chicago, Washington, D.C, Berlin, and London — where the ride is known as the "No Trousers Tube Ride." Just got home. Thank you to everyone who took part in the #NoTrousersTubeRide today in the UK or elsewhere in the world. The world can be a depressing place, but just silly things like this can make it so much easier to deal with. A genuinely hilarious day. pic.twitter.com/DO8Y29V6KX — Tom [PositiveLad] (@PositiveLad) January 7, 2018 Baby, it’s cold outside but it’s electric down in Metro. Go DC! Go DC, go! #nopantsdc #NoPantsSubwayRide @WTOP pic.twitter.com/qE1jV0s9T2 — Liz Anderson (@PlanetNoun) January 7, 2018 On the West Coast and in other more forgiving climates, it wasn't that cold, but riders still made an impressive showing in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. No pants? No problem riding the L.A. Metro.The 10th annual No Pants Metro Ride surprised passengers at Union Station this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/LY69aimwB0 — Hub-LA (@TheHub_LA) January 7, 2018 No pants, no problem! WATCH: Subway rat seizes free avocado, because who wouldn't

Police officers shot and killed nearly 1,000 people in the United States in 2017, slightly more than the previous year, according to a tally published on Monday by The Washington Post. The newspaper has been logging details of shootings by police in the United States since 2015, tracking local news reports, public records and social media. Black men, both armed and unarmed, accounted for 22 percent of all people shot and killed by US police last year but make up just six percent of the total US population.

Celgene Corp , which has announced a deal to buy Impact Biomedicines, on Monday forecast 2018 total revenue that fell short of analysts' estimates, sending the U.S. biotech company's shares down 2 percent. Celgene, which left its long-range 2020 forecast unchanged, said it expects 2018 full-year revenue of $14.4 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts' on average were estimating revenue of $14.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. While headlines suggested the Impact deal announced on Sunday could cost up to $7 billion, Celgene said the only certain cost was the upfront payment of $1.1 billion, with all other payments contingent on approval and major sales milestones for fedratinib, a late stage drug for myelofibrosis.

ATLANTA (AP) — A few dozen protesters took a knee in cold, light rain on a sidewalk near the venue of the College Football Playoff title game Monday evening, shouting slogans against President Donald Trump.

The Government Accountability Office is raising concerns about the technological maturity of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. The new boomer, which must become operational by 2031, will feature a host of new technologies that are supposed to increase the vessels’ survivability into the foreseeable future. “Additional development and testing are required to demonstrate the maturity of several Columbia class submarine technologies that are critical to performance, including the Integrated Power System, nuclear reactor, common missile compartment, and propulsor and related coordinated stern technologies,” the GAO report reads.

religion

Does President Trump see through the fawning of subordinates? To judge from Michael Wolff’s new book, he doesn’t see through it at all. Trump’s susceptibility to flattery is one of the running themes of the book.

The wife of a disgraced Pennsylvania police chief has broken her silence after her husband was arrested on Friday for trying to solicit sex from an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, KDKA reports.

BEIJING (AP) — An Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China's east coast, leaving the tanker's entire crew of 32 missing and causing it to spill oil into the sea, authorities said Sunday.

South Korea wants the reunification of families divided since the end of the Korean War to be on the agenda when its diplomats meet their North Korean counterparts at Panmunjom on Tuesday morning. Cho Myoung-Gyon, South Korea's unification minister, said on Monday that Seoul also hopes to be able to explore ways of reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula when the two sides meet to discuss arrangements for North Korean athletes to take part in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. "We will listen to what North Korea will say", Mr Cho told reporters in Seoul. "We will make efforts to enable the North to take part in the games. "Basically, the two sides will focus on the Olympics", Yonhap news quoted Mr Cho as saying. "When discussing inter-Korean relations, the government will seek to raise the issue of war-torn families and ways to east military tensions". Mr Cho will head the five-strong South Korean delegation taking part in the talks, which are scheduled to start at 10am local time in one of the prefabricated blue huts that sit astride the North-South border at Panmunjom and have been the scene of countless - mostly fruitless - discussions since an armistice was signed to halt the three-year Korean War. North Korea Imports exports The talks will be the first direct dialogue between the two governments since December 2015. Reuniting families who have been separated for more than 60 years has been a regular request from successive governments in the South. Since August 2000, South Koreans have been able to travel to the North to meet their relatives on more than 20 occasions, although deteriorating ties between Pyongyang and successive and more hard-line conservative governments in the South have meant that the last meeting was in February 2014. North Korea has been accused of using the families in the North as a bargaining chip to wring concessions out of the South and, given the dwindling number of relatives still alive and their desperation to see their loved-ones, may use a similar tactic again. The North Korean delegation will be headed by Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. Regarded as a veteran negotiator, he has overseen cross-border military talks since 2006 and is considered to be a key advisor to Kim Young-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party and reportedly the mastermind behind the sinking in 2010 of the South Korean warship Cheonan and the deaths of 46 of her crew. South Korean army soldiers stand guard on Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarized zone, near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea Credit: Ahn Young-joon/ AP North Korean state media has hinted at Pyongyang's priorities going into the talks, with the Korea Central News Agency reporting: "The entire process of North-South relations shows that efforts to improve bilateral ties can come to fruition only when the two sides work together based upon cooperation among Korean people." "The will to enhance North-South relations must be backed up not by words, but by practical actions to foster inter-Korean reconciliation and unity, and reunification", it added. While the North appears to be extending an olive branch to the South, no such niceties are on offer to Washington, despite suggestions by President Donald Trump that he would be open to a telephone conversation with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. "The imperialist forces, led by the United State, are violently infringing upon other countries' sovereignty and slaughtering peaceful residents", the Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial. "The US-led unequal international order is now shaken to the roots by our republic, which has emerged as a new strategic state capable of posing an actual nuclear threat to the US mainland", it added. North Korea war puff The newspaper went on to describe Mr Trump as "a premium war dealer who destroys world peace". Polls in South Korea have suggested that three-quarters of the population are in favour of North Korean athletes taking part in the Winter Olympics, which are due to start in the city of Pyeongchang on February 9. Yet conservative politicians and large parts of the South Korean media continue to warn that the North cannot be trusted. In its editorial on Monday, the ChosunIlbo newspaper called for the South Korean government to stick to the principle of negotiations being geared to ultimately removing nuclear weapons from the peninsula. "No international principles must be compromised just to ensure a bit of glory for the Pyeongchang Olympics", the editorial declared. "Seoul would be reduced to a tool in realising Pyongyang's evil schemes", it added. "It must not allow itself to get sucked into concessions that weaken international pressure on the regime".

Sports stadiums in Saudi Arabia will open their doors to women to attend football matches for the first time ever on Friday, the government has announced. "The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al-Ahli versus Al-Batin on Friday January 12," the ministry of information said in a statement on Monday. It said women would also be able to attend a second match on the following day and a third one on January 18.

Fisker Inc. might sound like a familiar name, but it's actually a very new company that's just released a few details of its first new vehicle, the EMotion electric sedan. Although the official image doesn't give away much about some of the really revolutionary engineering behind the EMotion, it does show in some style the feature most people will inevitably talk about with this car: its pretty crazy butterfly doors. The company is run by Henrik Fisker, who was also the man behind Fisker Automotive, which produced the Karma electric sedan before the company withered and car went to China, resurrected by a company called Karma as the Revero.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce said on Monday he will not run for a 14th term representing his southern California district, a seat that could be a key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives. Royce is the latest in a wave of some 30 House Republicans who have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning. Democrats need to win 24 seats in the November mid-term elections to retake the majority in the House, which Republicans have controlled since 2011.

A Texas couple who pleaded guilty to charges related to forcing a Nigerian woman to work as their nanny for two years without pay has been ordered to pay her more than $121,000 in restitution, a judge ruled Friday.

The Israeli army overnight carried out air strikes and fired rockets at targets in Syria, causing damage near a military position, the Syrian army said in a statement on Tuesday. Israel's army has carried out several attacks on the Syrian army and its ally Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011. The Israeli air force carried out strikes on the Qutayfeh area northeast of Damascus, causing the Syrian army to retaliate and "hit one of its planes", the Syrian army said.

A Royal Navy frigate is escorting four Russian naval ships through the English Channel. HMS Westminster is accompanying two Russian frigates and two support ships as they head north returning from the Mediterranean. Naval sources said the contact was routine, but it comes amid an estimated 10-fold increase of Russian naval activity in waters around Britain and in the North Atlantic this decade. Commander Simon Kelly, the Commanding Officer of HMS Westminster, said: "HMS Westminster's role as the Royal Navy's Fleet Ready Escort is to be at very high readiness to respond to anything the British government requires. "While today most people are returning to work for the first time in the New Year, HMS Westminster's ship's company has been at sea and at readiness as part of the Royal Navy's commitment to keep Britain safe at all times. "The English Channel is an absolute lifeline for the UK, and it is very important HMS Westminster and the Royal Navy maintains a watchful eye on this key strategic link." HMS Westminster escorted five Russian ships through the English Channel Credit: Louise George Activity has risen in recent years with warships passing Britain on their way to join Russia's military campaign to prop up Bashar al-Assad in Syria. On Christmas Day, the frigate HMS St Albans was dispatched to track the Russian vessel Admiral Gorshkov as it made its way through the North Sea close to Britain. And on Christmas Eve, HMS Tyne was dispatched to escort a Russian intelligence-gathering ship through the North Sea and the England Channel. A Wildcat helicopter was then also dispatched to monitor two further Russian vessels. Royal Navy's HMS Westminster Giving a strong statement last month, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, said: "I will not hesitate in defending our waters or tolerate any form of aggression. "Britain will never be intimidated when it comes to protecting our country, our people, and our national interests."

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin LONDON (Reuters) - In a swipe at his hardline rivals, President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday young Iranian protesters were unhappy about far more than just the economy and they would no longer defer to the views and lifestyle of an aging revolutionary elite. The pragmatic cleric, who defeated anti-Western hardliners to win re-election last year, also called for the lifting of curbs on social media used by anti-government protesters in the most sustained challenge to conservative authorities since 2009. "It would be a misrepresentation (of events) and also an insult to Iranian people to say they only had economic demands," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday ordered a re-examination of the case of a black death row inmate after one of the jurors at his trial questioned whether black people have souls. The high court in September halted the execution of Keith Tharpe, who was hours away from receiving a lethal injection, after his lawyers argued that racism had played a "pivotal role" in his death sentence. Tharpe was found guilty of the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman, which took place as she drove to work with his estranged wife in the southern US state of Georgia.

Last year, the Guardian reported on an event staged by the Kushner family in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments. Jared Kushner’s business dealings are under renewed scrutiny amid reports that the US’s top financial watchdog is looking into an investment-for-visa program run by the Kushner family’s real estate company and questions have been raised about his business dealings in Israel.

The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.

Donald Trump‘s lawyers are reportedly discussing ways in which the President could be interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Expecting that Mr Mueller will ask to interview Mr Trump, the President’s legal team is discussing a range of options for the format of such an interview, such as written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to NBC News. Politico reported last year that Mr Trump’s cadre of attorneys wanted the President to be interviewed by Mr Mueller, believing that it could help the special counsel finish his investigation faster and dispel the allegations that Mr Trump committed any wrongdoing.

An oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a freighter off China’s east coast is at risk of exploding and sinking, Chinese state media reported Monday, as authorities from three countries struggled to find its 32 missing crew members.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A mother, father and their two young sons were shot to death early Monday at a Southeast Texas beachfront hotel in what police are investigating as a possible triple killing followed by a suicide in which the woman was the shooter.

Hundreds of flying foxes have perished during Australia's searingly hot summer, according to environmentalists. Shocked campaigners were confronted by the sight of scores of dead animals, and claimed the creatures were "boiled alive" in the heat. Some flying foxes were still hanging from trees as they died, in a shock mass death which campaigners called "dreadful and heartbreaking". The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign wrote on Facebook that temperatures hit over 44C in the Campbelltown district of Sydney, and that over 400 of the animals died. Sydney reached a nearly 80-year temperature high of 47.3C on Sunday. The campaign wrote: "So many little lives lost due to the extreme heat and not enough canopy cover to shade them or keep them cool. "Adults sought out shade and more shelter further up the creek resulting in many babies being left behind to deal with the heat." Campaigners attempted to nurse the animals back to health Credit: Facebook People who live in the area are being urged to watch out for flying foxes which may be suffering heat stress, as those which are often move further to the ground, and to call local wildlife rescue services. Volunteer Cate Ryan told local media: "It was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before." A local wildlife rescue group advised: "If the flying-fox is on the ground and it’s a hot day, you can place a cool towel or umbrella above it until the rescuer arrives to protect it from the the worst of the heat. Spraying the animal intermittently with a very light mist or setting up a sprinkler to gently wet the animal can also help." A pile of dead flying foxes Flying foxes are big bats and eat nectar, pollen and fruit. Unlike smaller bats, they do not use sonar and instead, like humans, use their eyes and ears. The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign said "Flying foxes are intelligent and remarkable. These unique animals help regenerate our forests and keep ecosystems healthy through pollination and seed dispersal. They are a migratory and nomadic 'keystone' species; meaning a species that many other species of plants and animals rely upon for their survival and wellbeing. Flying foxes, like bees, help drive biodiversity, and faced with the threat of climate change, land clearing, and other human-caused ecological pressures, we need them more than ever." The Australian heatwave featured temperatures which melted the bitumen on the highway, as well as sparking bushfires which politicians warned were a danger to life.

President Hassan Rouhani went all-in on Monday with a push for greater civil liberties in the wake of the deadly unrest that rocked Iran in recent days. It was a radical call to arms for change, one that has grown more pressing for the reformist faction as it became, for once, the target of the protests that swept the country for several days over the new year. Since May, his failure to appoint any women to his cabinet or make any progress on freeing political prisoners has left many disillusioned with the moderate president and his reformist allies.

WASHINGTON – Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday sought to discredit a new report that President Donald Trump likely met with Russians at his Trump Tower headquarters, but then admitted he did not know.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) — A transgender rights advocate who started a pageant for transgender women in New England was found stabbed and beaten to death in her home, and her husband was charged with her slaying.

The Philippines will lodge a diplomatic protest with China after Manila questioned if Beijing had reneged on a pledge not to militarise a disputed South China Sea reef. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains into islands, installing military facilities and equipment on them. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana Tuesday said Manila was investigating reports of recent Chinese activity on Fiery Cross Reef, an outcrop that Beijing turned into an artificial island and which now appears to house a military base.

It might have been only 18 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City on Sunday afternoon, but the annual tradition of riding the subway without pants went on despite some frozen buns. SEE ALSO: Eastern U.S. shivers through 'stupid cold' temperatures after the 'bomb cyclone' The light-hearted event brought out many riders donning winter clothing, but no pants. Once on board, participants are supposed to play it straight and act like nothing's out of the ordinary. No pants subway ride in New york January 7th 2018 #Nopantssuwayride2018 more information #improveverywhere https://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ #nopantssubwayride #nopants #nopantssubway #Newyorkhttps://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ A post shared by 2018awesome (@nopantssubway2018) on Jan 6, 2018 at 9:58am PST Even "Hot" Mike Pence was spotted wearing just a suit and underwear. Just met “Hot Mike Pence” doing the no pants subway ride today... he goes around prodding fun at the Trump administration, specifically the VP, collecting for causes opposed to the administration’s view pic.twitter.com/nkwkhp3NY0 — Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) January 7, 2018 Elsewhere riders were pant-less despite brisk temperatures in Chicago, Washington, D.C, Berlin, and London — where the ride is known as the "No Trousers Tube Ride." Just got home. Thank you to everyone who took part in the #NoTrousersTubeRide today in the UK or elsewhere in the world. The world can be a depressing place, but just silly things like this can make it so much easier to deal with. A genuinely hilarious day. pic.twitter.com/DO8Y29V6KX — Tom [PositiveLad] (@PositiveLad) January 7, 2018 Baby, it’s cold outside but it’s electric down in Metro. Go DC! Go DC, go! #nopantsdc #NoPantsSubwayRide @WTOP pic.twitter.com/qE1jV0s9T2 — Liz Anderson (@PlanetNoun) January 7, 2018 On the West Coast and in other more forgiving climates, it wasn't that cold, but riders still made an impressive showing in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. No pants? No problem riding the L.A. Metro.The 10th annual No Pants Metro Ride surprised passengers at Union Station this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/LY69aimwB0 — Hub-LA (@TheHub_LA) January 7, 2018 No pants, no problem! WATCH: Subway rat seizes free avocado, because who wouldn't

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Monday it was time for the older generation to step back and allow "new hands" to lead, raising prospects of leadership change in the party. Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader who has been at the helm of the MDC since its formation in 1999, disclosed in June 2016 that he had cancer. Pictures of a frail Tsvangirai meeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Robert Mugabe in November after he was eased from office by a de facto military coup, have increased calls that he consider giving way to a new opposition leader.

Steve Bannon hoped to parlay Trump’s victory in 2016 into a nationwide insurgency against the Republican establishment, backing a slate of primary challengers to sitting senators. But his guerrilla campaign lost a crucial battle in Alabama, and now seems to have collapsed entirely, as Trump has disavowed him in the wake of the “Fire and Fury” book. What happens now to the candidates he was backing?

Does President Trump see through the fawning of subordinates? To judge from Michael Wolff’s new book, he doesn’t see through it at all. Trump’s susceptibility to flattery is one of the running themes of the book.

In a CNN appearance Sunday, Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior policy adviser, was upset with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s grotesque comments about the Trump administration in Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.”

Michael Wolff’s upcoming book about President Trump’s first year in office, “Fire and Fury,” has sent shockwaves through the White House. Here are 10 notable revelations gleaned from the excerpts published so far.

The seeds for the epic meltdown in the Trump-Bannon relationship were sown in the contentious Alabama Senate special election, when Bannon’s candidate, Roy Moore, lost to Democrat Doug Jones — embarrassing the former White House aide and empowering his sworn enemy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

It may be counterintuitive to think about how the planet is getting warmer while shoveling your car out of the snow. But it’s nonetheless true. And in a twist of irony, global warming may be driving the colder temperatures that the U.S. has been experiencing this winter.

North Korea was able to achieve nuclear capability and drastically improve its ballistic weapons, spreading fear throughout the region. But it’s a desperately poor country, and one of the world’s most-heavily sanctioned. How did Kim Jong Un pull this off?

President Trump predicted Tuesday that Hispanic people will fall in love with Republicans, including himself, because Democrats supposedly have not done anything substantive regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

A new batch of photos has been released illustrating 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's face-lift, which kicked into high gear earlier this summer when President Trump began a 17-day working vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

A gunman perched on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas casino unleashed a hail of bullets on an outdoor country music festival below, killing 58 people and injuring 489 others — as tens of thousands of concertgoers screamed and ran for their lives

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill laughed off the assertion by Roy Moore campaign spokeswoman Janet Porter that there is a "one in 15 billion" chance voter fraud did not occur in the state’s special U.S. Senate election.

Former President Barack Obama was the most admired man among Americans in 2017, narrowly edging President Trump for the title, Gallup’s annual poll finds. Hillary Clinton was named the most admired woman for the 16th consecutive year.

Trump has returned to one phrase — "witch hunt" — time and again — and repackaged with typical Trumpian hyperbole. “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” Trump tweeted last May after ex-FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as Justice Department special counsel to oversee the probe.

The whistleblower who exposed Russia’s systematic doping of Olympic athletes has been warned by U.S. officials that Russian agents may be inside the United States looking for him and that new security measures needed to be taken to insure his safety, the lawyer for the whistleblower tells Yahoo News.

Trump’s commendation of Charlie Kirk comes on the heels of the New Yorker report which suggests that the nonprofit Turning Points may have violated campaign finance laws with its involvement in political activity during the 2016 presidential election and has been accused of creating a racially biased work environment.

Among the unheralded winners of 2017 are political scientists, some of whom could spend the rest of their careers trying to explain Donald Trump’s rise and significance. Two of them, Michael Barber and Jeremy C. Pope of Brigham Young University, saw in Trump’s ever-shifting, ideologically flexible views “a unique opportunity” to test a crucial question in American politics: “To which do people give a higher priority: their ideology or their partisan affiliation?” They ask, Why is it that Republicans, self-described defenders of American values and interests, “became four times more likely to view Vladimir Putin favorably” from 2014 to 2016? What changed is that the Republican Party nominated someone who boasted about the mutual admiration he shared with the Russian dictator, illustrating Barber and Pope’s finding that “group loyalty” and “social identity” are more important in shaping voters’ views than their professed ideology.

Donald Trump in 2017 moved from being a chaos candidate to a chaos president. He shoots for the moon (literally), routinely says things that aren’t true, and often makes pledges that generate enormous attention but very little follow-through. Many of his signature policy efforts have been tied up in or blocked by the courts, his campaign is under investigation by the FBI, and his approval rating is at historic lows for a first-year president.

While never quite admitting error, the White House has had to issue a number of clarifications and elaborations, on matters both serious and trivial. Here are a few of the occasions in 2017 when White House officials had trouble keeping their stories straight. President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, while Comey’s agency was investigating the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia.

Rescue workers and volunteers help residents make their way out of a flooded Houston neighborhood following Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 29. The catastrophic flooding in Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey was the backdrop for plenty of dramatic boat rescues in August. Both groups used Facebook to organize and coordinate their street-by-street searches.

Now that 2017 is coming to a close, however, we thought it would be useful to look back on the year with some perspective and highlight some of the most important stories that didn’t get the attention they deserved the first time around — usually because America was too distracted by whatever that was over there.

A year of erratic U.S. rhetoric and steadily escalating diplomatic and economic pressure has failed to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, leaving the frustrated Trump administration to reconsider its options going into 2018 as the world wonders whether it’s on the edge of war. “We’re not committed to a peaceful resolution — we’re committed to a resolution,” President Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, told BBC News this week. “We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as the president said, all options are on the table. And we have to be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime,” McMaster said.

Christmas marked 96 days since Jesse Vazquez’s house on Calle Alameda in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, lost power in Hurricane Maria. The small generator his children brought him from New York back in October, when Yahoo News accompanied them on their journey, has since been supplemented with a larger one.

crime-trials

Does President Trump see through the fawning of subordinates? To judge from Michael Wolff’s new book, he doesn’t see through it at all. Trump’s susceptibility to flattery is one of the running themes of the book.

The wife of a disgraced Pennsylvania police chief has broken her silence after her husband was arrested on Friday for trying to solicit sex from an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, KDKA reports.

BEIJING (AP) — An Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China's east coast, leaving the tanker's entire crew of 32 missing and causing it to spill oil into the sea, authorities said Sunday.

Sports stadiums in Saudi Arabia will open their doors to women to attend football matches for the first time ever on Friday, the government has announced. "The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al-Ahli versus Al-Batin on Friday January 12," the ministry of information said in a statement on Monday. It said women would also be able to attend a second match on the following day and a third one on January 18.

By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran has foiled attempts by its foreign enemies to turn legitimate protests into an insurgency to overthrow the Islamic Republic, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. "Once again, the nation tells the US, Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that 'you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too.'" Khamenei tweeted. The Revolutionary Guards, the military force loyal to Khamenei, said on Sunday security forces had put an end to the unrest that it too said had been whipped up by foreign enemies.

Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff called President Donald Trump the “biggest leaker” in the White House in an interview Monday, as he defended himself from attacks against his tell-all book on the Trump administration.

Fisker Inc. might sound like a familiar name, but it's actually a very new company that's just released a few details of its first new vehicle, the EMotion electric sedan. Although the official image doesn't give away much about some of the really revolutionary engineering behind the EMotion, it does show in some style the feature most people will inevitably talk about with this car: its pretty crazy butterfly doors. The company is run by Henrik Fisker, who was also the man behind Fisker Automotive, which produced the Karma electric sedan before the company withered and car went to China, resurrected by a company called Karma as the Revero.

A Texas couple who pleaded guilty to charges related to forcing a Nigerian woman to work as their nanny for two years without pay has been ordered to pay her more than $121,000 in restitution, a judge ruled Friday.

Last year, the Guardian reported on an event staged by the Kushner family in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments. Jared Kushner’s business dealings are under renewed scrutiny amid reports that the US’s top financial watchdog is looking into an investment-for-visa program run by the Kushner family’s real estate company and questions have been raised about his business dealings in Israel.

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday ordered a re-examination of the case of a black death row inmate after one of the jurors at his trial questioned whether black people have souls. The high court in September halted the execution of Keith Tharpe, who was hours away from receiving a lethal injection, after his lawyers argued that racism had played a "pivotal role" in his death sentence. Tharpe was found guilty of the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman, which took place as she drove to work with his estranged wife in the southern US state of Georgia.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce said on Monday he will not run for a 14th term representing his southern California district, a seat that could be a key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives. Royce is the latest in a wave of some 30 House Republicans who have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning. Democrats need to win 24 seats in the November mid-term elections to retake the majority in the House, which Republicans have controlled since 2011.

Steve Bannon expressed “regret” for his comments to journalist Michael Wolff, whose explosive new book sparked a backlash against the former top Donald Trump aide over his comments about a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016.

An oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a freighter off China’s east coast is at risk of exploding and sinking, Chinese state media reported Monday, as authorities from three countries struggled to find its 32 missing crew members.

Hundreds of flying foxes have perished during Australia's searingly hot summer, according to environmentalists. Shocked campaigners were confronted by the sight of scores of dead animals, and claimed the creatures were "boiled alive" in the heat. Some flying foxes were still hanging from trees as they died, in a shock mass death which campaigners called "dreadful and heartbreaking". The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign wrote on Facebook that temperatures hit over 44C in the Campbelltown district of Sydney, and that over 400 of the animals died. Sydney reached a nearly 80-year temperature high of 47.3C on Sunday. The campaign wrote: "So many little lives lost due to the extreme heat and not enough canopy cover to shade them or keep them cool. "Adults sought out shade and more shelter further up the creek resulting in many babies being left behind to deal with the heat." Campaigners attempted to nurse the animals back to health Credit: Facebook People who live in the area are being urged to watch out for flying foxes which may be suffering heat stress, as those which are often move further to the ground, and to call local wildlife rescue services. Volunteer Cate Ryan told local media: "It was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before." A local wildlife rescue group advised: "If the flying-fox is on the ground and it’s a hot day, you can place a cool towel or umbrella above it until the rescuer arrives to protect it from the the worst of the heat. Spraying the animal intermittently with a very light mist or setting up a sprinkler to gently wet the animal can also help." A pile of dead flying foxes Flying foxes are big bats and eat nectar, pollen and fruit. Unlike smaller bats, they do not use sonar and instead, like humans, use their eyes and ears. The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign said "Flying foxes are intelligent and remarkable. These unique animals help regenerate our forests and keep ecosystems healthy through pollination and seed dispersal. They are a migratory and nomadic 'keystone' species; meaning a species that many other species of plants and animals rely upon for their survival and wellbeing. Flying foxes, like bees, help drive biodiversity, and faced with the threat of climate change, land clearing, and other human-caused ecological pressures, we need them more than ever." The Australian heatwave featured temperatures which melted the bitumen on the highway, as well as sparking bushfires which politicians warned were a danger to life.

Israeli jets and ground-to-ground missiles struck Syria early on Tuesday, Syria's army said, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated he would do what was needed to stop Hezbollah gaining "game-changing" Iranian weapons. The Syrian army said in a statement carried by state television that Israeli jets fired missiles at the al-Qutaifa area near Damascus from inside Lebanese airspace at 2:40 a.m. (0040 GMT) and Syrian air defenses hit one of the planes. Israel then fired rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but the Syrian defenses brought them down, the army said, adding that Israeli jets fired a final barrage of four rockets from inside Israel, one of which was intercepted by Syrian air defenses while the others caused material damage.

India's Supreme Court on Monday announced a review of a hugely controversial ban on gay sex, saying no one should have to live in fear because of their sexuality. The court said it would take up a legal challenge by five high-profile Indians who said the colonial-era law created an atmosphere of intimidation. The announcement is the latest chapter in a long-running legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by the British in the 1860s.

The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A mother, father and their two young sons were shot to death early Monday at a Southeast Texas beachfront hotel in what police are investigating as a possible triple killing followed by a suicide in which the woman was the shooter.

The Philippines will lodge a diplomatic protest with China after Manila questioned if Beijing had reneged on a pledge not to militarise a disputed South China Sea reef. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains into islands, installing military facilities and equipment on them. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana Tuesday said Manila was investigating reports of recent Chinese activity on Fiery Cross Reef, an outcrop that Beijing turned into an artificial island and which now appears to house a military base.

It might have been only 18 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City on Sunday afternoon, but the annual tradition of riding the subway without pants went on despite some frozen buns. SEE ALSO: Eastern U.S. shivers through 'stupid cold' temperatures after the 'bomb cyclone' The light-hearted event brought out many riders donning winter clothing, but no pants. Once on board, participants are supposed to play it straight and act like nothing's out of the ordinary. No pants subway ride in New york January 7th 2018 #Nopantssuwayride2018 more information #improveverywhere https://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ #nopantssubwayride #nopants #nopantssubway #Newyorkhttps://improveverywhere.com/2017/12/27/no-pants-subway-ride-2018-details-for-new-york/ A post shared by 2018awesome (@nopantssubway2018) on Jan 6, 2018 at 9:58am PST Even "Hot" Mike Pence was spotted wearing just a suit and underwear. Just met “Hot Mike Pence” doing the no pants subway ride today... he goes around prodding fun at the Trump administration, specifically the VP, collecting for causes opposed to the administration’s view pic.twitter.com/nkwkhp3NY0 — Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) January 7, 2018 Elsewhere riders were pant-less despite brisk temperatures in Chicago, Washington, D.C, Berlin, and London — where the ride is known as the "No Trousers Tube Ride." Just got home. Thank you to everyone who took part in the #NoTrousersTubeRide today in the UK or elsewhere in the world. The world can be a depressing place, but just silly things like this can make it so much easier to deal with. A genuinely hilarious day. pic.twitter.com/DO8Y29V6KX — Tom [PositiveLad] (@PositiveLad) January 7, 2018 Baby, it’s cold outside but it’s electric down in Metro. Go DC! Go DC, go! #nopantsdc #NoPantsSubwayRide @WTOP pic.twitter.com/qE1jV0s9T2 — Liz Anderson (@PlanetNoun) January 7, 2018 On the West Coast and in other more forgiving climates, it wasn't that cold, but riders still made an impressive showing in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. No pants? No problem riding the L.A. Metro.The 10th annual No Pants Metro Ride surprised passengers at Union Station this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/LY69aimwB0 — Hub-LA (@TheHub_LA) January 7, 2018 No pants, no problem! WATCH: Subway rat seizes free avocado, because who wouldn't

Police officers shot and killed nearly 1,000 people in the United States in 2017, slightly more than the previous year, according to a tally published on Monday by The Washington Post. The newspaper has been logging details of shootings by police in the United States since 2015, tracking local news reports, public records and social media. Black men, both armed and unarmed, accounted for 22 percent of all people shot and killed by US police last year but make up just six percent of the total US population.

Celgene Corp , which has announced a deal to buy Impact Biomedicines, on Monday forecast 2018 total revenue that fell short of analysts' estimates, sending the U.S. biotech company's shares down 2 percent. Celgene, which left its long-range 2020 forecast unchanged, said it expects 2018 full-year revenue of $14.4 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts' on average were estimating revenue of $14.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. While headlines suggested the Impact deal announced on Sunday could cost up to $7 billion, Celgene said the only certain cost was the upfront payment of $1.1 billion, with all other payments contingent on approval and major sales milestones for fedratinib, a late stage drug for myelofibrosis.

ATLANTA (AP) — A few dozen protesters took a knee in cold, light rain on a sidewalk near the venue of the College Football Playoff title game Monday evening, shouting slogans against President Donald Trump.

The Government Accountability Office is raising concerns about the technological maturity of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. The new boomer, which must become operational by 2031, will feature a host of new technologies that are supposed to increase the vessels’ survivability into the foreseeable future. “Additional development and testing are required to demonstrate the maturity of several Columbia class submarine technologies that are critical to performance, including the Integrated Power System, nuclear reactor, common missile compartment, and propulsor and related coordinated stern technologies,” the GAO report reads.